Armenian lawmakers commemorate Greek genocide

Deputy President of the Armenian National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov, lawmaker Tachat Vardapetyan and representatives of ethnic minorities on Saturday, May 19 visited the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan to honor the memory of the victims of the Greek genocide.

In a conversation with reporters, Sharmazanov reminded that the Armenian parliament unanimously recognized the genocide of Greeks back in 2015.

“It's a great honor for me to be the key rapporteur on the issue,” lawmaker said.

“At the same time, we and our Greek and Cypriot partners have joined forces to fight against denialism. Both Greece and Cyprus have condemned Turkey’s denialist policy but that’s not enough.”

According to him, the Greek, Assyrian and Armenian Diaspora and the three countries together can resist the Turkish denialism.

Sharmazanov, who is of Greek descent, said April 24 and May 19 are first and foremost days of revival.

“As I have said before, I am 100% Greek and 100% Armenian, and that gives me more strength to fight for the international recognition of both the Armenian and Greek genocides,” the MP said.

On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorated the 103rd anniversary of the Genocide which began in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.